www.it-ebooks.info in 10 Minutes Galaxy Tab ™ Sams Teach Yourself James Floyd Kelly 800 East 96th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46240 www.it-ebooks.info Sams Teach Yourself Samsung Galaxy Tab™ in 10 Minutes Copyright © 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, elec- tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. ISBN-13: 978-0-672-33682-9 ISBN-10: 0-672-33682-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file. Printed in the United States of America First Printing: March 2011 Trademarks All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Pearson cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Warning and Disclaimer Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible, but no warranty or fitness is implied. The information provided is on an “as is” basis. The author and the publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any per- son or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the information contained in this book. Bulk Sales Pearson offers excellent discounts on this book when ordered in quantity for bulk purchases or special sales. For more informa- tion, please contact U.S. Corporate and Government Sales 1-800-382-3419 corpsales@pearsontechgroup.com For sales outside of the U.S., please contact International Sales international@pearsoned.com Editor in Chief Greg Wiegand Acquisitions Editor Laura Norman Development Editor Wordsmithery LLC Technical Editor David Levy Managing Editor Sandra Schroeder Project Editor Seth Kerney Copy Editor Keith Cline Indexer Heather McNeill Compositor Mark Shirar Book Designer Gary Adair www.it-ebooks.info Contents Introduction ix 1 The Setup Wizard 1 Activate Your Galaxy Tab 1 Connecting to a Network and Google Account 4 Synchronizing with Your Google Account 11 Synchronizing with Other Services 13 Summary 17 2 Configuration and Notifications 19 Modifying Galaxy Tab Settings 19 Customizing Notifications 25 Customizing Home Pages 27 Summary 36 3 Taking Photos and Video 37 The Camera App 37 Summary 48 4 Web Browsing and Email 49 Browsing the Web 49 Using Other Email Services 58 Summary 63 5 Exploring with GPS 65 Getting Started with Navigation 65 Having Fun with Places 76 Summary 78 6 Using the Gallery 79 Accessing the Gallery 79 Viewing a Photo or Video 83 Manipulating Your Photos and Videos 84 Editing Photos 85 Working with Video 88 Summary 90 www.it-ebooks.info 7 Shop the Android Market 91 The Android Market 91 Examining an App 95 Downloading a Free App 96 Purchasing an App 99 Uninstalling Apps 101 Summary 106 8 Making Phone Calls 107 Getting Started with Skype 107 Configure Your Skype Account 110 Making a Call 114 Instant Messaging 117 Summary 119 9 Read Books, Listen to Music, and Watch Videos 121 Reading a Book 121 Listening to Music 125 Watching Videos 129 Summary 133 10 Helpful Tips and Useful App Suggestions 135 Monitoring Battery Life 135 Checking for Updates 135 Learning to Use the Keyboard 136 Using the Task Manager 137 Using Online Help 138 Connecting to a Windows PC 139 Interesting Apps 142 Summary 149 Index 151 iv Contents www.it-ebooks.info About the Author James Floyd Kelly received an English degree from the University of West Florida and an industrial engineering degree from Florida State University, and has enjoyed using the skills and knowledge from both in various jobs over the years. He is the author of numerous books, including books on building a CNC machine, building and programming LEGO robotics, and using open source software. He currently lives with his wife and two sons in Atlanta, Georgia. v www.it-ebooks.info Dedication For Ashley. Thank you for nonstop encouragement and support. vi www.it-ebooks.info Acknowledgments I enjoyed writing this book, and my Pearson team made it that much more enjoyable. Special thanks to Laura Norman, for giving me a chance to write for Pearson and having much patience as I learned the ins and outs of the Pearson writing process and special software. The rest of my team, whose names you can find a few pages back, were so helpful in getting this book done, and I’m indebted to Romny and Seth for helping pull it all together. A special thank you to my tech editor and good friend, David Levy, who agreed to purchase a Galaxy Tab and help me out as my tech editor. His error-catching and suggestions for improving the book were invaluable. Finally, I want to thank Yvonne Hargrove, for her persistence in helping me procure my Galaxy Tab, and Maris Whetstone, for some technical assistance and testing along the way. vii www.it-ebooks.info We Want to Hear from You As the reader of this book, you are our most important critic and com- mentator. We value your opinion and want to know what we’re doing right, what we could do better, what areas you’d like to see us publish in, and any other words of wisdom you’re willing to pass our way. You can email or write me directly to let me know what you did or didn’t like about this book—as well as what we can do to make our books stronger. Please note that I cannot help you with technical problems related to the topic of this book, and that due to the high volume of mail I receive, I might not be able to reply to every message. When you write, please be sure to include this book’s title and author, as well as your name and contact information. I will carefully review your comments and share them with the author and editors who worked on the book. Email: feedback@samspublishing.com Mail: Greg Wiegand Editor in Chief Sams Publishing 201 West 103rd Street Indianapolis, IN 46290 USA Reader Services Visit our website and register this book at informit.com/register for conve- nient access to any updates, downloads, or errata that might be available for this book. viii www.it-ebooks.info Introduction The Galaxy Tab hit the market with a bang! It’s the first 7-inch tablet to become available with the Android operating system (and a 10-inch ver- sion is just on the horizon), a popular open source OS that is extremely versatile, stable, and feature packed. Add in the ability for third-party soft- ware developers to create new programs (called apps) for consumers, and the Galaxy Tab offers users a wide range of services, games, and capabili- ties in a portable and lightweight package. Now, tablet computing is certainly not new—they started appearing in the mid-’90s and typically weighed as much as a laptop! The first attempt at tablets were nothing more than stripped-down laptops with hardware that really wasn’t up to the task of running bloated operating systems and gargantuan programs that took forever to open and use. Tablets appeared and disappeared as consumers made their frustrations known, and sales plummeted. Jump forward a decade and the day of the tablet has come again but this time the technology appears to have matured. The Galaxy Tab is one of the newest tablets to hit the market, and it brings with it numerous hardware and software features that are sure to impress consumers—and maybe impress you. Whether you already own a Galaxy Tab or are considering purchasing one, this book provides you with information about the device’s features and capabilities. This book is all about getting a Galaxy Tab owner up to speed on using the Galaxy Tab and its most popular features. Lessons are short and quick— readers can get through a lesson in fewer than 10 minutes and then imme- diately put that new knowledge to work with a Galaxy Tab. The 10 lessons I cover in this book are as follows: . Set up your Galaxy Tab using the Setup Wizard . Customize your Galaxy Tab using the Settings tool . Take photos and videos with the Camera app www.it-ebooks.info [...]... Notifications In this lesson, you learn about the three ways to customize your Galaxy Tab, including configuring settings and notifications and customizing your screens Modifying Galaxy Tab Settings The Settings tool contains the largest assortment of configuration options for your Galaxy Tab Although you’re unlikely to ever change many of these settings (such as the Language), you might find yourself modifying... in this book were taken directly from the Galaxy Tab using its built -in screen-capture capability However, there might be differences in what you see in a figure and what you see on your Galaxy Tab screen The Galaxy Tab is sold by numerous retailers, including electronics stores and mobile phone companies I purchased my Galaxy Tab, for example, from Verizon Wireless Each company can customize the Galaxy. .. improved You might find some information in this book has changed for an app or for the Android OS if an update/upgrade has become available to the Galaxy Tab A great place to search for information about updates to the Galaxy Tab s OS and apps is the Samsung website for the Galaxy Tab, found at http://www.samsung com/us/mobile /galaxy- tab www.it-ebooks.info LESSON 1 The Setup Wizard In this lesson, you... you if You are a new Galaxy Tab owner You are considering purchasing a Galaxy Tab You want more information on the built -in features of the Galaxy Tab You’re unfamiliar with how a particular app or hardware feature works You want to learn about features on the Galaxy Tab not covered in the included user guide www.it-ebooks.info Screen Captures and Differences Conventions Used in This Book I provide... process continues, you see a message like the one in Figure 1.4 that tells you the operating system is being set up Be patient— this takes only a minute or so to complete www.it-ebooks.info Activate Your Galaxy Tab FIGURE 1.3 Your Galaxy Tab must be activated before it can run FIGURE 1.4 The operating system program continues to install www.it-ebooks.info 3 4 LESSON 1: The Setup Wizard Connecting to a... specific to a certain retailer; instead, I focus on those apps and features that are useful and available to all Galaxy Tab owners, regardless of where they purchased their Galaxy Tab www.it-ebooks.info xi xii : Introduction Finally, keep in mind that the Android operating system is an ever-evolving piece of software, and the OS and the many apps that run on Android are constantly being updated and improved... your Galaxy Tab You also learn how to create a Google user account that is required for many services used on the Galaxy Tab Activate Your Galaxy Tab The first time you turn on the Galaxy Tab, you are greeted with a screen that’s locked This is the default setting—if no action is taken within a few seconds, the device goes into Sleep mode and the screen turns off To unlock the Galaxy Tab, put your finger... or your friends’ pages, you need to install a Facebook app See Lesson 7 for coverage of finding, downloading, and installing apps.) TIP: Configuring More Services To return to the screen shown in Figure 1.19, simply click the Home button on your Galaxy Tab and select Settings Scroll down the list of settings and choose Setup Wizard Tap the Skip button to skip setting up another Google account, and then... six different options www.it-ebooks.info Modifying Galaxy Tab Settings 21 Tap the Settings option and the Settings tool appears, as shown in Figure 2.3 The Settings tool scrolls up and down the screen, so use your finger to swipe the screen and scroll down to view all the options In Figure 2.3, only 12 options are visible, but 3 more options are available in the Settings tool below the Accessibility... your Galaxy Tab might have already configured the language setting If this is the case, feel free to jump ahead to Lesson 2, “Configuration and Notifications,” or continue reading if you think there might be some settings that you want to change After selecting your language, you need to activate the Galaxy Tab You see an alert screen such as the one in Figure 1.3 Tap the Activate button to begin the . www.it-ebooks.info in 10 Minutes Galaxy Tab ™ Sams Teach Yourself James Floyd Kelly 800 East 96th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46240 www.it-ebooks.info Sams Teach Yourself. 91 Examining an App 95 Downloading a Free App 96 Purchasing an App 99 Uninstalling Apps 101 Summary 106 8 Making Phone Calls 107 Getting Started with Skype 107 Configure